Inspired by the multiplicity of “false claims” by President Trump, the Washington Post has unveiled a new category in its fact-check rating system: the Bottomless Pinocchio.
According to the newspaper, the rating can be applied to any politician, but right now the only one who it judges as qualifying is Trump — 14 times.
“Trump’s willingness to constantly repeat false claims has posed a unique challenge to fact-checkers,” Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote Monday. “To accurately reflect this phenomenon, The Washington Post Fact Checker is introducing a new category — the Bottomless Pinocchio.”
The Bottomless Pinocchio will be awarded when the Post deems that politicians are constantly repeating certain false claims, that would usually earn three or four Pinocchios, in an attempt to knowingly engage in spreading disinformation.
“Most politicians quickly drop a Four-Pinocchio claim, either out of a duty to be accurate or concern that spreading false information could be politically damaging. Not Trump,” Kessler said. “The president keeps going long after the facts are clear, in what appears to be a deliberate effort to replace the truth with his own, far more favorable, version of it. He is not merely making gaffes or misstating things, he is purposely injecting false information into the national conversation.”
The Post added that along with receiving three or four Pinocchios in the past, for a statement to be deemed a Bottomless Pinocchio it must be repeated at least 20 times by the same person. Kessler says that the number 20 shows that there is no question the person making the assertion is aware it is not a factual claim.
Most notably, Kessler mentioned Trump’s claims that he would build a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The claim, which Trump made 86 times before the 2018 midterm elections, the Post says is false and misleading and would receive a Bottomless Pinocchio.
The Post’s denunciations of Trump’s “falsehoods,” “false assertions,” and “regular deceptions” make it clear there will probably be many more Bottomless Pinocchio’s to be awarded to the commander-in-chief.
Kessler stated that the 15th Bottomless Pinocchio is likely just around the corner: “Fifteen times, the president has claimed to audiences that the Uzbekistan-born man who in 2017 allegedly killed eight people with a pickup truck in New York brought in two dozen relatives to the United States through so-called ‘chain migration.’ But Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov is not even a U.S. citizen, so the actual number is zero.”
